Page 46 of Summer at Harbour View House
Natasha looked around. ‘What?’
‘That cracking sound. I think it was ice breaking.’
‘Ha. Ha.’
Ben sighed. ‘Look, I think we got off on the wrong foot. I promise not to fix any more of your front doors if you stop looking at me like I spend my days posing in front of a mirror.’
‘Do you?’
Ben grinned. ‘Only if it’s raining.’
‘I’m hoping that’s a joke, but I’m not sure.’
‘It’s a joke.’
‘Can you stop doing that jaw thing?’
‘What jaw thing?’
Natasha tried to poke her chin out in the same way that Ben did, but just felt something tweak in her neck.
‘Dammit, I just pulled a muscle.’
‘Do you want me to—’
‘No, I don’t!’
‘It’d probably melt my hands anyway.’
‘What’s that supposed to mean?’
‘Just, you know, the acid.’
‘What acid?’
‘And the barbed wire.’
‘What barbed wire?’
‘The gun emplacements.’
‘Are you taking the mickey?’
Ben just spread his arms. ‘Look, perhaps I should leave you alone to sit on that rock … alone. I might need to go and save someone.’
‘Shouldn’t you be out surfing waves the size of that cliff, then posing for magazines while groups of hot Europeans girls swoon over you?’
Ben’s smile dropped. ‘Yeah, maybe.’
Natasha stood up. ‘Look, I’d better go. I have to … I don’t know, do something else.’
Before she could get talked out of it, she got up and headed back up the beach. While sitting down, the muscles in her legs had all tightened, and she found herself limping like an old woman, clutching her lower back with one hand, using the other to try to swing her body forward. She didn’t dare look back, just in case Ben was watching. Not that she cared, of course. He was a meathead, and even if she was looking for a new boyfriend, meatheads really weren’t her type.
When she finally staggered up the path and into their garden, she found Hannah lying on a sunbed on the front patio Natasha had cleared, sunning herself. Sitting beside her, in a bucket filled with sand, was Charlie. Both of them looked relaxed and content, at ease with the world that was poking at Natasha like a bear trapped in a cage.
‘Oh, hey,’ Hannah said, sitting up. ‘What happened to you?’
‘I’m fine. Just a little stiff. I went for a walk up the cliffs. I think I pulled something in my shoulder.’
